188 A History of Judaism
the Apostles refer mostly to the ‘assembly’ (ekklesia ) in Jerusalem. The
account of the early Church in Acts has been doubted by some scholars
as the product of a distinctive salvation history and treated with as
much scepticism as evidence for the historical Jesus. With respect to the
career of Paul this scepticism has some justification. But there is no rea-
son to doubt the account in Acts of communal meetings for table
fellowship and prayer much in the same fashion as the Yahad, Essenes
and haverim, but with a distinctive emphasis in their teaching on the
crucial role of Jesus in bringing salvation. Hence the oration attributed
to Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples and a dominant figure in the
Christian community in Jerusalem, at Shavuot (Pentecost):
Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that
he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he
was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he
would put one of his descendants on the throne. Foreseeing this, David
spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying ‘He was not abandoned to
Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’ This Jesus God raised up,
and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand
of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy
Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. For David did not
ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ There-
fore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made
him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.The international population of Jerusalem at festival time, when,
according to Acts, ‘there were devout Jews from every nation under
heaven living in Jerusalem’, led to the rapid spread of the message of
these enthusiasts to Jewish synagogues in the eastern Mediterranean
diaspora by apostles who were in many cases, such as Philip, Barnabas,
Prisca, Aquila and Apollos, as well as Paul, themselves diaspora Jews.^45
One impulse to this diaspora mission was persecution in Jerusalem,
and notably the martyrdom of the diaspora Jew Stephen. Stephen had
been attacked by a mob who ‘with a loud shout all rushed in to gather
against him ... [and] dragged him out of the city and began to stone
him’ until he died. In the narrative of Acts, this mob action was pro-
voked by a long speech by Stephen in the style of the biblical prophets,
highly critical of the spiritual blindness of Israel throughout history. The
historicity of this account is now unknowable. But although we are told
that in the immediate aftermath of Stephen’s death ‘a severe persecution